Maternal Health

According to the WHO, Cambodia and Laos have high rates of maternal mortality and birth without a trained birth attendant present. In comparison to other countries in Southeast Asia, Cambodia and Laos have the highest rates. Our Maternal Health Initiative is one step we are taking to help prevent this. Studies have shown that when women access the healthcare system in their first few pregnancies, and earlier in each pregnancy, then they are more likely to utilize the healthcare system for labor and delivery of their children and for postnatal and newborn care.

What the Maternal Health Initiative is:

• A culturally-competent plan to help pregnant women who are less-likely to access the healthcare system achieve the access they need to have a safe and healthy pregnancy, labor, and birth.

Our goal:

• Improve maternal prenatal care and maternal mortality by helping high-risk women access the healthcare system early in pregnancy. We strive to accomplish this through providing prenatal education to these women through a network of training, local healthcare professionals.

How it works:

• We have utilized our network to work with physicians and midwives in Cambodia to implement our MHI in a stepwise fashion
• Step 1: Together with healthcare professionals in maternal and newborn healthcare in the US and Cambodia, we have put together a curriculum for a perinatal course. The course is about 28 pages long. It contains both evidence-based and culturally pertinent issues regarding maternal health and perinatal care, as well as a physical copy of a maternal health record for women to have filled out by their providers. The course is designed to be taught in a group setting over 2 or 3 visits with a physician, and also allow time for women to get the prenatal care they need in a private manner.
• Step 2: We have established a network of physicians and midwives who will teach the curriculum at no cost to women interested in taking the course. They receive basic training to assure they do not have any questions regarding maternal health or the content of the course or they care they need to provide. The course is being tested among a small number of physicians and midwives in a high-density urban area.
• Step 3: Following successful implementation of the course with adjustments as necessary, we intend to expand the course throughout our network to the rural areas of Cambodia. We provide continuous training and guidance to our local providers as well.
• Step 4: Based on our collection and analysis of data throughout our program, we will continue to make changes and refine our initiative to assure that it is carried out in an effective manner. Our goal is to reach the women least-likely to receive prenatal care and help them access the healthcare system early in their pregnancy.

How you can help:

• Are you a healthcare professional and interested in getting involved? Contact us to see how you can join our network of US- or Cambodian-based healthcare professionals and provide training or care.
• Donations of physical supplies are greatly appreciated and put to great use. If you have supplies that can be donated, contact us to discuss the type of supplies and how we may receive them from you or your organization.

Monetary donations are needed to provide the support we need. Monetary donations are used to provide supplies for our local professionals and provide reimbursement for certain testing and care. As a 100% volunteer-based organization, 100% of your donations go towards providing care and towards our initiative. We do not use your donations for administrative costs or overhead.